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Re: /usr/local, /var and */tmp in c:\Users\Public


On Nov 12 11:00, Warren Young wrote:
> I didnât want to derail the discussion about the future of /home with
> this, so Iâm starting a new thread.
> 
> I think it would be an improvement to Cygwin if c:\cygwin contained
> only things that can be reinstalled from your local setup.exe download
> cache, in the same way that you can nuke "c:\Program Files\Microsoft
> Office $versionâ and reinstall without losing anything you created
> locally.
> 
> Further design principles follow from this:
> 
> - User data should live in directories that those users are normally
> allowed to write to.
> 
> - Per-machine software and per-machine configuration should be in
> directories that local Administrators can normally write to.
> 
> - Software built from source (/usr/local) should not be in c:\cygwin;
> it is per-machine configuration, and so should be elsewhere.
> 
> - If you tighten down what remains so that normal users only get read
> permission, it should continue to function, in the same way that
> normal users on a Linux box donât need write access to, say,
> /usr/include.
> 
> 
> This /etc/fstab addition mostly accomplishes that:
> 
> 
> c:/Users/Public/Cygwin/var         /var         ntfs   auto      0 0
> c:/Users/Public/Cygwin/usr/local   /usr/local   ntfs   auto      0 0
> 
> c:/Users/Public/Cygwin/tmp         /tmp         ntfs   notexec   0 0
> c:/Users/Public/Cygwin/tmp         /usr/tmp     ntfs   notexec   0 0
> c:/Users/Public/Cygwin/tmp         /var/tmp     ntfs   notexec   0 0
> 
> 
> I propose that this or something like it be added to the default
> fstab.

No.  This would even break Setup right now.  Also, Users\Public doesn't
exist on XP/2K3 so this needs additional logic as long as we support
XP/2K3.

I'm not entirely opposed to such an idea.  But...

- definitely not this year. or even the first half of next year.  We
  have to consolidate the changes to account handling first, and,
  right now, I'm basically the only developer working on the Cygwin
  core more than just doing small patches.

- A change like this should probably work in conjunction with a setting
  in the Setup GUI.

- So this requires changes in Setup and Cygwin.  I'm not going to do
  that, unless I have more support on the coding side, and more
  participation of serious coders on the cygwin-developer ML.

- Did I mention that stuff like this would be much less hassle if
  we had more people doing some coding?

> The only thing remaining in c:\cygwin that canât be moved in this way
> â but which it would be nice to â is /etc.  If you try, you will find
> that it makes Cygwin asplode; cygwin1.dll needs to find
> $cygbindir/../etc in order to find /etc/fstab, at the least.

That's documented behaviour, and it's an obvious chicken/egg problem,
isn't it?  fstab is the file *defining* mount points, so Cygwin can't
use the mount points in fstab to find etc/fstab


Corinna

-- 
Corinna Vinschen                  Please, send mails regarding Cygwin to
Cygwin Maintainer                 cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Red Hat

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